Johnny Depp is not particularly happy with Ricky Gervais' behavior hosting the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, and seeks to vent his spleen once and for all. Oh, snap!
Ah, I love Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Committing to the spirit of the Olympic Games of 2012, I just finished a The Office Marathon and an Extras Triathlon - the blood taste in my mouth is making me delirious. Perhaps I need to take a look at Life's Too Short. That is, when I've recovered from all the times I've passed out, oxygen deprived from - out of pure, excruciating embarrassment - having buried my head into a cushion too violently and too frequently.
The picture above is obviously Greta Garbo after her Hollywood make over. But how did she look as a curvaceous Greta Gustafsson appearing in Swedish commercials, early 1920's? The answer to that is to be found in the archives of Swedish Television.
If you have trouble recognizing her among the other models, she is the one with eyebrows painted with a piece of charcoal. Hideous. Sometimes a physical make over half a world away, obviously, can bring out the inner beauty of the Scandinavian womanhood.
In this 2:45 long (or short) clip, we see Greta "Garbo" Gustafsson in three different milieus: As a fashion model for the brand PUB, at the terrace of the Strand Hotel and at a picnic in the sweet green grass of the North.
The clip is silent, so you can always hum "Yes, We Have No Bananas" to yourself to liven it up a bit.
And yes: the Swedish word for "The End" really is "Slut"... It has amused many an international audience since the beginning of time. Or the beginning of Swedish film, that is.
I just read that the actress playing the ill-fated (and quite spoiled) daughter of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler in my favorite lying-in-the-sofa-being-sick-and-feeling-sorry-for-yourself classic film Gone With the Wind (1939), Cammie King, has died aged 76.
I read a cute quote from her, about working with Clark "The Hunk" Gable:
"He was such a warm, friendly man. When he kissed me, his mustache tickled. I'd tell that to my mother's friends and they'd swoon."
No wonder! By the way: I just realized how sad it is to first realize that there still are some people alive having experienced immortal classics like GWTW, only when they have died. A quite disturbing paradox. Anyway - R.I.P.
I will keep this post short only for the one reason that so many found my Fred-Ginger-crossbreeding photo so disturbing, that I want it to still be the first thing visible when visiting my blog. Just for a little while.
And yeah, I feel terrible for STILL not having come back full time, blogging with that 110% energy that I always do. (Ha! Hope I trick at least some of you that I put any thought what so ever in my writing.) Here's why:
The school has, finally, started again - the current subject is Television History. Enormously fascinating, since it is mostly crap with a few glimpses of potential every now and then. Just enough glimpses of hope that you become devastated over and over again of the pure shit that drowns it. If you want an angry Briton to spew all over it instead of a narcissistic Swede, check out Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe. I give you the first third of the first episode of the first season. (That was a confusing sentence. But I bet nobody reads it too close anyway.)
The second reason why I am so neglecting, is that it's a quite crazy situation politically in Sweden now. The election is September 17, and until then I just have to keep up to date with all rotten vegetables the politicians throw at each other to respectfully win the confidence of the voters. Aren't politics just nice?
Anyway, to sooth your anger you can see the following evidence of me being the most glamorous bride this summer. Crown Princess Victoria is nothing compared to my awesomeness. See you soon!
About the wedding dress (I got a question in the comment section): I bought it on Forever21, and the standard wedding dress in Sweden is the princess-of-a-day white silky ones, which I wouldn't feel comfortable in.
And yes, my maids of honor are that beautiful. In fact, all Swedish women are beautiful, so come here on your next vacation.
This episode is a special one, considering it was shot in France and had little to do with the actual Twilight Zone series. It was released in 1962 as La rivière du hibou ("Owl River"), ran for 28 minutes and was based on a story by Ambrose Bierce. I actually came to watch this episode on YouTube after searching in vain for an earlier film adaption by Charles Vidor called simply The Bridge (1929). Although I didn't find what I was looking for, I instead found this fascinating little piece of film.
It's the Civil War era and a man is about to be hanged from Owl Creek Bridge for attempting to sabotage the railroads. This information is delivered by a warning sign and the images of the film themselves - apart from the Twilight Zone narrator and some commands by the firing squad there is no dialog at all.
The man's tie is removed and a noose is tightened around his neck. The executioners tap their heels together in some strange army rituals. The man closes his eyes and recalls his wife and children playing in the garden to the sound of a clock ticking. The ticking escalates, and suddenly we cut back to the soldiers taking his pocket watch as a last little detail before letting the man fall to his cruel fate.
Who could anticipate that the rope would break, giving the man a chance to escape? This is beautifully captured through slow-motion, under-water shooting and cutting back and forth between close-ups and long shots. When the man reaches the surface a sweet song about being a free man and loving the nature starts to play. Utopian close-ups of leaves and spider webs are interrupted as the music starts to slow down to a growling, menacing sounding noise. The man suddenly realizes that the firing squad stands ready to finish their work with gunpowder. An intense exchange of more and more extreme close-ups of the horrified man, so close to freedom, and the firing squad preparing their guns follows.
Then what happens? I will tease you with screenshots from the first 10 minutes of the film, and then leave you to spend 25 minutes on YouTube to enjoy. This short masterpiece is something I won't allow you not to watch, so here is the link again. Now - recall the story and watch the screen caps!
Oh, and C. K. Dexter Haven: Here is a YouTube link for the animated communist propaganda short Black and White (1932). I recommend that you download a neat little program called DVDVideoSoft - Free YouTube Download (here) and save it! And Paul Robeson rocks.
The man is hanged, but the rope breaks. When the man instinctively has reached the surface he has a minor revelation of having survived. The beauty of the vital nature is however interrupted by the realization of still being in danger of his life.
What an evil stare. For Pete's sake, just watch it already!
Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming. -Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was born Myrna Williams in Radersburg, Montana, 1905. Her first name was given to her by her father after a train station that he liked the name of. She was of Welsh and Scottish ancestry, and when she was seven years old she moved to Helena, Montana with her family. At the age of twelve she made her first stage appearance in a dance she had choreographed herself.
"I was a homely kid with freckles that came out every spring and stuck on me till Christmas."
Picture of Myrna Williams in 1918.
When she was thirteen (1918) her father died, and she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and younger brother. At that time motion pictures was still a new phenomenon, and she soon joined the enormous wave of actresses swarming the studios, all wanting to become the next Mary Pickford. She started it off by improving her dancing skills and performing at local stage productions.
Myrna became a dance instructor in a building only 300 feet from the MGM studios, so she used to walk over to the gates and stand there, dreaming of becoming an actress. After six years of hard work as a dance instructor and theatre actress before someone in the film industry finally discovered the talanted red-haired beauty. In 1925 Myrna changed her surname from Williams to Loy and was cast i her first role for Warner Bros. Pictures, What Price Beauty? with silent film actress Nita Naldi, Myrna ironically credited as "Vamp", a role she for a time would be typecast as, along with other forms of exotic women and mistresses.
Myrna Loy in The Crimson City (1928).
In 1928 Myrna was given the leading part in The Crimson City, playing a Chinese woman named Isobel or State Street Sadie (reference to Sadie Thompson, perhaps?). Others in the cast include Conrad Nagel and Anna Mae Wong (whom Myrna was chosen for the part over!). The same year she also had a part as "Girl in China" in the silent comedy A Girl in Every Port (also starring Louise Brooks as "Marie, girl in France"), which in 1952 was remade with Groucho Marx in the leading role.
When the talking pictures era began, Myrna's characters began to destinguish from one another. She appeared as a chorus girl in The Jazz Singer (1927), and in The Desert Song (1929) she improvised a foreign accent, sang and danced. But her real breakthrough was when she got a part in a crime melodrama with MGM Studios, Manhattan Melodrama (1934), opposite Clark Gable and her future co-actor William Powell. The director was a man named W. S. Van Dyke, who saw the potential of Myrna Loy. It is said that he, to test her sense of humour, pushed her into a swimming pool at a Hollywood party once. She passed the test, and Van Dyke saw to it that she got the leading part in his next film, The Thin Man (1934).
"I never enjoyed my work more than when I worked with William Powell. He was a brilliant actor, a delightful companion, a great friend and above all, a true gentleman."
Nick and Nora Charles, and their devoted dog Asta.
It was as Nora Charles, the sophisticated and loyal wife to detective Nick Charles (played by earlier mentioned William Powell), that Myrna Loy made her big breakthrough. To be able to starr in it, she gave the crew a deadline on three weeks, since she had signed for another picture afterwards. The picture was filmed in two weeks, and was a huge success, mostly due to the perfect chemistry between the two main actors and the snappy dialogue. The Thin Man got five sequels, all starring Myrna Loy and William Powell.
Myrna Loy and William Powell became such a popular film couple that they not only made several Thin Man films together, but all in all they made 14 pictures together. During this period she was one of Hollywoods busiest and highest paid actors, and made films such as Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, Petticoat Fever (1936) with Robert Montgomery and Libeled Lady (1936) with William Powell, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. But when World War II broke out she abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort, working closely with the Red Cross. She toured frequently to raise war fonds, and was so outspokenly against Adolf Hitler that her name appeared on his blacklist. She fought for Civil Rights and was active in UNESCO.
Her movie career slowed down after that. She appeared as Aunt Bea in the Doris Day thriller Midnight Lace (1960), but after that she didn't act in a film until 1969 and The April Fools with Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve. She returned to the stage, but wasn't over-the-top active their neither.
"I admire some of the people on the screen today, but most of them look like everybody else. In our days we had individuality. Pictures were more sophisticated. All this nudity is too excessive and it is getting very boring. It will be a shame if it upsets people so much that it brings on the need for censorship. I hate censorship. In the cinema there's no mystery. No privacy. And no sex either. Most of the sex I've seen on the screen looks like an expression of hostility towards sex."
In 1965 she received The Sarah Siddons Award (the award that borrowed the name from the made-up award in All About Eve, 1950) for her work in Chicago Theatre, and in 1988 she receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center. She was never nominated for an Academy Award, but in 1991 she received an Academy Honorary Award for hr career achievement. She accepted it via camera with the short speech:
"You've made me very happy. Thank you very much".
That was her last public appearance.
With her third husband, producer and screenwriter Gene Markey, in 1948. They were married 1946-1950.
She was married four times but had no children in any marriage. Referring to her typecasting as the loving wife, Myrna said following:
"Some perfect wife I am. I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg."
She had twice in her life (1975 and 1979) having had to make a mastectomy. She died in 1993 during surgery.
Video Clips:
An interesting slide show with pictures from Myrna Loy's early film career.
During the McCain-Obama political campaign 2008 Alexandra Pelosi followed the republican campaign trail, interviewing civilians and volunteers. The gathered material is shown in this documentary, without any opinions from the director, producer and cinematographer herself.
The documentary begins with John McCain pronouncing that Barack Obama won the election. We see the faces of terrified republicans in the audience, some are crying. One woman is asked what she thinks of America now.
- I am scared to death.
- It is supposed to read "Say no to socialism"? - It SAYS "Say no to socilism." - You spelled it wrong! - I did? Do you have a marker? - No. So, what is socialism? - There is a definition... I can look it up really quickly. (He picks up his cell phone). - Tell me yourself. - Well, eh... Socialism... it's basically like the views of Hitler. It's like the in between... ehm... it's like in between... uhm... communism and... ehm... I can't remember what the other word is, but it is between... It's like the medium between communism and another view, but I don't know exactly what that is.
Barack Obama is a terrorist. Obama - Osama. It's the SAME thing! When they swear him in he's going to have his hand on the Koran, and he's going to take off his mask, ans he's going to be Osama bin Laden, that's who he is!
Well, that was just a little appetizer. You really should see this, all of you. Of course, I can't tell whether this looks as freaky to other Americans as it does for me, little Inga from Sweden. But I guess it does, since the documentary is made by an American woman. I'm just happy that the majority of the American people voted right. Brings some hope to the rest of the world.
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